Alleged high-level Snohomish County drug trafficker charged

Published 1:30 am Sunday, July 19, 2020

EVERETT — The alleged drug trafficker was missing an arm and had a prosthetic leg.

During an interview with a Seattle police detective after his arrest outside a Lynnwood hotel on June 18, he appeared surprisingly open about the crimes he was accused of. He reportedly admitted he had drugs with him.

“You guys got me at the best time for you, worst time for me,” he said, according to charging papers. “I picked up thirty pounds of meth yesterday and sold 12 of it, so all the money I have there is from that sale.”

The detective asked the man who bought the 12 pounds.

He smiled. “What’s in it for me?” The detective apparently didn’t answer the question, according to court documents, and instead moved on with his questions.

Travis Eugene Keel, 52, was charged in Snohomish County Superior Court July 10 with six counts of drug-related crimes, nine counts of unlawful possession of a firearm, and one count of possession of an explosive device.

At his arraignment Monday, he pleaded not guilty. His bail was set at $3 million.

His criminal history includes three attempts to elude police, bail jumping and four drug-related convictions — all from the late 90s and early 2000s.

Prosecutors wrote that Keel likely was associated with a gang or a drug cartel because of his level of drug distribution. He employed drug runners and muscle to collect debts — with force, if needed. Keel himself had “extremely violent tendencies” when collecting, according to charging papers. Confidential informants reported he often would beat people and threatened them with their lives if they didn’t pay, or if they made him mad.

The investigation was led by a Seattle narcotics detective, who used confidential informants to conduct drug buys. On May 7, he served a search warrant on Keel’s house in the 21300 block of Locust Way, in the Alderwood Manor neighborhood east of Lynnwood, the detective found guns, ammunition and drugs throughout the house and inside vehicles.

In the living room, the detective found three AR-15 rifles leaning against a wall, all loaded, as well as several loaded magazines and other ammunition nearby. A spotting scope was set up in front of a window that looked over a long driveway.

“The rifles appeared … ready to address any threat that came down the driveway,” prosecutors wrote.

Loose ammo and loaded rifle magazines were found in “nearly every room of the house.” In the garage was an AK-47 and a body armor vest meant to stop rifle rounds. In the laundry room was a revolver speed loader and .38 caliber rounds of ammunition. In a Dodge Challenger, detectives found an AR-15 and a revolver with a spent cartridge in the cylinder, as well as a large sparkler bomb capable of causing “grave bodily injury.” Ammunition was found in a Chevrolet Silverado.

Scales, baggies and other drug paraphernalia reportedly littered the house. More than 500 grams of methamphetamine was recovered.

A Seattle bomb squad unit and SWAT teams from Seattle and King County assisted with the search warrant.

Keel did not appear to be home at the time, nor did he answer any announcements from police. However, a BMW was seen circling the block. Keel mentioned he was the driver, during the interview with the Seattle detective. He also reportedly said there were more drugs in the house.

“You know you guys missed a kilo of heroin right?” he said, according to charging papers. “In the pantry, on the floor behind some empty bottles.”

Keel was apparently nearly caught by Everett police on May 22, when they responded to reports of drug activity in the 500 block of East Casino Road. An officer reported he saw a Dodge truck with a piece of paper taped over where the license plate should have been. He followed the truck to a house about a mile away, losing it briefly once for about 45 seconds.

By the time the officer arrived at the home, no one was inside the truck, though the engine was still clicking as if it had been used recently. The officer could see a handgun and several baggies of what appeared to be heroin through the truck’s window.

A woman who was a passenger in the truck identified a man who wasn’t Keel as the driver of the truck. She reported the man had picked up the truck to fix it. They had met months ago at a car auction, she told the officer.

The driver of the vehicle was not seen at the house. After obtaining a search warrant, the officer found an open wallet in the driver’s seat with ID cards belonging to Keel. The officer also found more than $22,000 in cash, nearly two kilograms of what looked like heroin, roughly 100 grams of what appeared to be methamphetamine, about 900 pills that “most likely” contained fentanyl, three cell phones, a revolver and a loaded short-barrel rifle.

There also was a shoe that appeared to be used with a prosthetic leg.

On May 28, the officer returned to the house and found a man working in the front yard — the same man who allegedly was driving the truck. According to charging papers, he said he heard the officer was looking for him.

“You aren’t even thinking about running?” the officer said.

“No,” the man reportedly said. “I didn’t have anything to do with that.”

When asked about the woman who was in the passenger seat, the man said he didn’t think he knew her. He also said he didn’t fix cars. “No, I’m not a mechanic,” he told the officer. He shut down the idea that he would have been at a car auction. He reported he was homeless and broke, according to charging papers; he had no way of buying vehicles.

The officer asked the man why people were saying he was driving the truck. He reportedly said he was an easy scapegoat because everyone knows he stays at the house.

On June 17, the Seattle narcotics detective gained a King County Superior Court judge’s permission to search the suspect himself, his “stash location” near Maltby and three more vehicles that belonged to him.

The next day, the detective learned Keel was staying at the Best Western Hotel in Lynnwood and served the search warrant with the help of other Seattle narcotics detectives, the Skagit County Narcotics Unit and the Seattle SWAT team.

Keel walked out of the hotel around 2 p.m., carrying a suitcase and a brown paper sack.

The detectives took him into custody and searched his belongings. According to charging papers, inside the suitcase was 15 pounds of methamphetamine, while there was more than $70,000 in the paper sack. In his car, detectives found a pound of heroin, more methamphetamine, 1,200 suspected fentanyl pills, a 9 mm pistol, body armor and a Taser.

A hotel staffer said Keel and the woman he stayed with had been evicted from their hotel room. On a previous visit, they had been kicked out and told not to return. A few more grams of heroin and methamphetamine were found in their room.

A search of Keel’s supposed stash location near Maltby came up empty. Keel said he didn’t keep anything there and had moved out a while ago. The people who currently live there told detectives the defendant had been kicked out because of drug activity.

Keel agreed to talk to the lead Seattle detective and appeared to know about the ongoing investigation, according to charging papers. He allegedly admitted to having drugs, unlawfully possessing guns and being in possession of an illegal explosive. He reportedly said he kept the guns for protection.

“I don’t like guns, but people will rob you and I don’t have a choice,” he said, according to court papers.

He added: “I can beat the gun charges you have on me from my house. You got me today, but the guns at my house, my lawyers can beat that.”

He reportedly said he bought the sparkler bomb from a friend for $800, so the friend wouldn’t use it to kill someone who owed a drug debt.

“I know I paid over 500 for that stupid thing, way too much,” he reportedly said.

Keel also appeared upset over Everett police taking his truck and the drugs that were inside. The Seattle detective said that must have been a big hit to lose that much. “Yeah I owe the Mexicans $300K,” Keel said, according to charging papers. “I’m (expletive).”

He said he got away from the Everett officers by jumping a fence.

“I looked like a (expletive) seal trying to get over it,” he told the detective, and laughed.

Keel allegedly told the detective how he operated. He reportedly said he would buy 30 to 50 pounds of methamphetamine and several kilograms of heroin at a time to distribute. He would sell the drugs to another dealer and resupply weekly, he said, according to charging papers. He mentioned getting methamphetamine was harder to come by due to the border closure.

Keel reported he was planning to sell the rest of the methamphetamine he had with him and then collect $60,000 in drug debt the day he was arrested.

He reportedly had plans to resupply one last time, take the profits from the drug sales and move to Montana.

Keel remained in the Snohomish County Jail on Friday. A jury trial is scheduled for September.

Zachariah Bryan: 425-339-3431; zbryan@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @zachariahtb.